Yabloko

History

The party dates back to the early 1990s. Originally established as a public organization in 1993, it transformed into a political party in 2001. From 1993 to 2003, the party had a small faction in the State Duma; in 2003, four single-mandate deputies passed from Yabloko to the Duma: one of them joined United Russia, and three joined the informal group of independent democrats. After the tightening of Russian legislation in 2011, only 7 registered political parties remained in Russia, among which was Yabloko. In 2011, the party managed to obtain the right to state funding, which allowed further functioning of the organization. As a result of the 2016 elections, the party is not receiving any state funding any further.

Emergence of the Party (1993–2002)

The immediate predecessor of the Yabloko party was the electoral bloc Yavlinsky-Boldyrev-Lukin, formed for the legislative elections of 1993. "Yabloko" is an acronym of the names of its founders: "Я" (Ya) for Grigory Yavlinsky; "Б" (B) for Yury Boldyrev, and "Л" (L) for Vladimir Lukin, with the full name meaning "Apple" in Russian.

The bloc included several political parties: the Republican, the Social Democratic, and the Russian Christian Democratic Union – New Democracy. The Yabloko bloc in the 1993 elections received 7.86% of the vote, as a result of which the Yabloko faction was created in the State Duma In January 1995 Yabloko was transformed into a public association after holding a founding congress. Yavlinsky became the head of the central council. Already during this period, there were some changes in the leadership. In 1994 part of the representatives of the Republican Party, headed by Vladimir Lysenko, left the bloc. At the same time, the Regional Center Party from St. Petersburg joined Yabloko as a regional organization. In September 1995, due to disagreements on some fundamental issues, Yury Boldyrev left the association as well.

The Yabloko public association was able to form factions based on the results of the elections to the State Duma in 1995 and 1999. In 1995, in the elections to the State Duma of the 2nd convocation, the Yabloko association received 6.89% of the vote. In the elections of the State Duma of the III convocation in 1999 Yabloko association made an alliance with Sergei Stepashin, including him as number three of the party list. According to the results of the vote count, the party received 5.93% of the votes.

Yabloko during the entire period of President Yeltsin became the "democratic opposition" to the president's policies. For example, Yabloko opposed privatization conducted by Anatoly Chubais, and offered an alternative program in 1998, which stated that privatization was carried out in an economically senseless and socially detrimental way, passing control of sold organizations to the "directors" with several backdrop nominal owners.

During the 1996 elections, Yavlinsky was offered to join the government. As a condition to join Yabloko's leader demanded an end to hostilities in Chechnya and to make serious adjustments to the socio-economic policy. In addition, he demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, head of the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation Alexander Korzhakov, First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, head of the presidential administration Nikolai Yegorov, director of the FSS Mikhail Barsukov. Since these conditions were not accepted, Yavlinsky and his team did not enter the government.

Political party (2002 to present)

On 26 April 2002, the Russian Democratic Party Yabloko (Reg. No. 5018) was registered by the Ministry of Justice. Grigory Yavlinsky was elected chairman of the party.

According to the deputy chairman of Yabloko, Sergei Ivanenko, in 2002 the party had 20,000 members.

In June 2003, the Yabloko faction voted for a vote of no confidence in the government, which, however, was not approved by the Duma.

Since 2003, Yabloko's position has worsened. In the 2003 State Duma elections, the Yabloko party received 4.3% of the vote (less than the 5% threshold) and did not receive seats in the State Duma on party lists (only 4 candidates from the party went through single-mandate constituencies). Interestingly, the fact that Vladimir Putin called Grigory Yavlinsky at night, during the counting of votes, with congratulations on the victory, became widely known.

After the joining of Green Russia and Soldiers' Mothers in 2006, the name of the party was changed to the Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" (RODP "Yabloko"). Since 2006, the Yabloko party has become part of the European party Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Sergey Mitrokhin became party chairman in 2008.

In the 2007 elections, only 1.59% of voters voted for Yabloko, and the party did not enter the State Duma again. In 2008 the party had 58,540 members. In the 2011 elections according to official data from the CEC, 3.43% of voters (2.25 million people) voted for Yabloko. In these elections, the party more than doubled its result but still did not get into the State Duma. However, this result gave Yabloko the possibility of state funding. In 2012 Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky was not registered by the Central Election Commission as a candidate for the presidential elections.

In 2021 the party had 16,100 members.

In the elections to the State Duma of 2021, Grigory Yavlinsky for the first time in the history of the party refused to run for deputies, and the federal list of candidates was headed by Yabloko chairman Nikolay Rybakov. 1.34% of voters voted for Yabloko (750 000 people). On 14 October 2021, the Federal Political Committee of the party decided to withdraw from the election candidates who supported the idea of Smart Voting Alexei Navalny. Several Yabloko members criticized the party's policies and demanded the leadership to resign.

Organizational structure

RUDP Yabloko consists of regional branches, one per subject of the federation, regional branches from local branches, one per urban district or municipal district, local branches from primary branches, and one per urban settlement or rural settlement.

The supreme body is the Congress, between Congresses – is the Federal Council, between the Federal Councils – is the Political Committee, the executive body is the Bureau, the highest official is the chairman, the highest control body is the Party Arbitration, the highest audit body is the Control and Auditing Commission.

The supreme body of the regional branch is the Conference, between Conferences is the Regional Council, the executive body of the regional branch is the Bureau of the Regional Council, the highest official of the regional branch is the chairman of the regional branch, the audit body of the regional branch is the Control and Audit Commission of the regional branch.

The supreme body of the local branch is the Conference, between Conferences – the Council of the Local Branch, the executive body of the local branch – is the Bureau of the Council of the local branch, and the highest official of the local branch is the chairman of the local branch.

The supreme body of the primary branch is the General Meeting, between General Meetings is the Council of the primary branch, and the highest official of the primary branch is the chairman of the primary branch.

Leadership

The first chairman of the party (1995–2008) was Grigory Yavlinsky.

In 1995 Vladimir Lukin and Yury Boldyrev were elected vice-chairmen (he left Yabloko in the same year). Since 1996 Vladimir Lukin has become the first deputy chairman of the party, and Sergey Ivanenko and Vyacheslav Igrunov have been the deputies. In 2000–2001, Vladimir Lukin was again the only deputy chairman of the party. In 2001–2004, Lukin served as the first deputy chairman of the party, while the deputy chairmen were Alexei Arbatov, Igor Artemiev, Sergei Ivanenko,and Sergey Mitrokhin. In 2004–2008, the first deputy chairman of the party was Sergei Ivanenko, deputy chairmen were Alexei Arbatov, Igor Artemyev, and Sergey Mitrokhin. The posts of deputy chairman until 2007 were also presented by Sergey Popov, Galina Khovanskaya, and Irina Yarovaya. After joining the party of the Green Russia movement, the post of deputy chairman of the party in 2006–2008 was held by Alexei Yablokov.

At the XV Party Congress on 21–22 June 2008, Mitrokhin was elected the second chairman of Yabloko. In 2008–2015, the posts of deputy chairmen of the party were abolished.

The next party leadership elections were held at the XVIII Congress of Yabloko on 19–20 December 2015. Emilia Slabunova became the third chairman of the Yabloko party, and Alexander Gnezdilov, Sergei Ivanenko, and Nikolay Rybakov were elected as her deputies.

At the XXI Congress on 15 December 2019, Nikolay Rybakov was elected the new chairman of the party. Sergey Ivanenko, Boris Vishnevsky, and Ivan Bolshakov became his deputies.

The Federal Political Committee is the collegiate governing body of the party. It formulates the party's position on major political issues between congresses; makes submissions to the party's federal bureau on key personnel appointments; makes decisions on the volumes and main directions of financing the activities of the party; organizes the work of the federal council of the party and convenes its meetings. The Federal Political Committee has the right to convene extraordinary congresses of the Party.

Arbatov Alexei Georgievich – head of the Center for International Security of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Local representation

Federal authorities and advisory structures under them

Andrei Babushkin (1964-2022), a former member of the Yabloko Bureau, was a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council

Authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation

Aslan Khapachev works as the head of the department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation in Adygea

The ex-chairman of the Buryat Yabloko, Natalya Tumureeva holds the position of Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the Republic of Buryatia.

Yabloko in the parliaments of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation

Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg – 2 deputies (Boris Vishnevskiy, Alexandr Shishlov).

Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia – 2 deputies (Emilia Slabunova, Inna Boluchevskaya).

Pskov Oblast Assembly of Deputies – 1 deputy (Artur Gaiduk).

Election results

Regional parliamentary elections

Regional parliaments of Russia in which Yabloko is represented.

Following the results of the elections on 4 December 2011 to the regional parliaments, Yabloko formed its own factions in three regions: St. Petersburg (6 seats out of 50 in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg: Grigory Yavlinsky became the head of the faction), Karelia (4 seats out of 50 in the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia), Pskov Region (1 deputy seat out of 44 in the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies). In the elections on 4 December 2011, the Yabloko party received 6.72% of votes on party lists to the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies, to the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia – 7.13% of the votes, to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg – 12 .50%.

Ideology

Political memorandum

In 2015, Yabloko adopted a Political Memorandum, which is a summary of the party's ideology. The new version of the memorandum was adopted in 2019. The document, in support of its provisions, must be signed by Yabloko candidates in elections at all levels.

Contents of the memorandum:

Our country needs deep and comprehensive political reforms aimed at moving from an authoritarian system of power to a real separation of powers, independent, fair and merciful justice, full-fledged local self-government, transparency of the legislative and executive authorities and their accountability to citizens, to fair elections and depoliticization of law enforcement agencies.

Bolshevism and Stalinism are misanthropic ideologies and practices. The state must give a legal assessment of the coup d'état of 1917–1918 and the heinous crimes that followed.

Nationalism and religious fundamentalism in any form and manifestation are unacceptable.

The transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one must be peaceful, non-violent and carried out in a legal, constitutional way.

An immediate cessation of the arms race, a renunciation of state propaganda for war, militarization of the country, threats and intimidation in foreign policy is necessary.

It is necessary to completely separate business and property from the authorities (which were merged due to the erroneous policies of the 1990s and 2000s), and to refuse to support oligarchic business from the budget. The transition from a resource-based economy to a modern high-tech economy is obligatory.

It is necessary openly and publicly investigate all facts of corruption in the Government, the Presidential Administration, law enforcement agencies, state companies and state corporations. The perpetrators must be punished, whoever it may concern.

LGBT Politics

The party consistently advocates for protection of the rights of LGBT people in Russia as well as other human rights systematically repressed in Russia.

Politics

Yukos

On 22 April 2005, in connection with the completion of the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, Grigory Yavlinsky issued an open statement in which he indicated:"This process has nothing to do with strengthening the rule of law in the country, or at least establishing some kind of order ... Instead, it created an atmosphere of intimidation and legal chaos in the country ... The number of procedural violations during the process exceeded all possible limits, and the consequences of this will take a very long time to overcome. Probably, since the time of Stalin and the shooting within "anti-thieves" decrees of Khrushchev in the 1950s. The right was not violated so revealingly and rudely. And after such a high-profile precedent, this will have fatal consequences for thousands of entrepreneurs across the country".According to Yavlinsky, when organizing the trial, the Russian authorities set three goals: to prevent the sale of Yukos to foreigners, to intimidate and subjugate Russian big business, and to put Yukos under the control of a certain group of government officials. Wherein:"Since none of the objectives could be achieved by legal means..., brute force was used, under the guise of, as far as possible, quasi-legal procedures".Yavlinsky believes that with this process “the political elite of the country begins a new stage: physical persecution and, possibly, destruction of each other ... This is a war that has no end. Its goal is the destruction of people from the highest echelons of power and business, current and former, the destruction of the fate of their loved ones and families.”"Such a wheel can only be rolled – and it cannot be stopped. Repressions – revenge, new repressions – new revenge. Is it really not clear that the current top will be the same in a few years ...? Stalin's bloody 20 years showed that repressions within the political class are continuous and pointless – everyone lives in an atmosphere of fear of the future. Because if our country smells the smell of repression and blood, it will not stop for a long time. The execution of 1993 and the subsequent war of 1994, which lasted for more than 10 years, is from this area ... The imprisonment of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is the way into repression and revenge. After that, no one can feel safe anymore – neither the accused, nor the accusers, nor the members of their families. This is the path to self-destruction of the nation and the country. The political class and top business in Russia must understand that the day the verdict of imprisonment is announced is the actual beginning of physical mutual destruction ... <...> Without a doubt, only President Putin can make a decision. It is necessary to proceed from reality – the outcome of the Yukos case, the imprisonment or not of Khodorkovsky, as well as the term of this imprisonment, entirely depend on the decision of Vladimir Putin. He actually bears political and moral responsibility for it. It is not necessary, taking advantage of your position of power, to put your opponents (or opponents of your entourage) in prison. And so much has already happened to make the situation irreversible, but in the main thing – as far as people's lives are concerned, there is still an opportunity to stop.

Chechen conflict

According to the Yabloko party, the Chechen problem is very complicated and ambiguous. It was provoked, according to the party, by the wrong policy of the Russian leadership, which dragged Russia into a protracted bloody conflict that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and created conditions for criminal business in Chechnya. The Chechen war caused very high military spending and also threatened the safety of many people. After the defeat of the Supreme Soviet in 1993, Yeltsin needed, according to the party, a "small victorious war" that would provide an excellent opportunity to show the power of power. In addition, at that time the power of the Chechen criminal communities on Russian territory increased enormously, and Dzhokhar Dudayev greatly weakened his position by his actions.

The Yabloko party, however, believes that restoring constitutional order is one thing, but demonstrating strength is another. Especially when this demonstration is carried out to distract the people from the socio-economic crisis in the country. 29 November 1994 Russian president Boris Yeltsin issued an ultimatum to all forces in Chechnya. On 5 December, Yabloko gathered a delegation ready to replace Russian tankmen prisoners of war – officers and soldiers of the Kantemirovskaya division, who participated in the unsuccessful attempt to storm Grozny on 26 November, allegedly carried out by anti-Dudaev opposition forces as hostages. Dzhokhar Dudayev agreed to meet with Russian deputies, including Grigory Yavlinsky and Sergei Yushenkov. The deputies arrived in Grozny, but the negotiation process was disrupted – according to Yavlinsky, this happened because "the negotiations were not part of the authorities' plan for a small victorious war." The peaceful initiatives of Yabloko were not accepted by either the broad masses or the State Duma. The majority of the Duma deputies refused to consider the bill "On delegations for the settlement of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic".

The "easy war", however, did not work out – it hit the whole society hard. The capture of Grozny by militants in March 1996, a year after the city was taken by federal troops, demonstrated the weakness of the federal troops, which then led to the Khasavyurt agreements. The only faction that supported the Khasavyurt agreements was the Yabloko faction. Three years later, during the impeachment of Boris Yeltsin, Yabloko formulated its position as follows:"... Responsibility for this war lies not only with Yeltsin and Dudayev's regime. It is also borne by the military leaders who gave and carried out criminal orders, the head of the government, Chernomyrdin, his deputies, ministers, bear this guilt and politicians, some of whom supported this war, others did not want to stop, and still others could not. However, we, Yabloko, are also responsible, because we did not do everything possible, not all of our resources were devoted to stopping the slaughter. Since no one can fix what happened, there is only one responsibility – to create such conditions under which what happened will never happen again. We, Yabloko, consider ourselves obligated to do everything possible to minimize the likelihood of such tragedies recurring in the future. Today we are obliged to create a precedent for punishing the authorities for crimes. The inevitable responsibility and punishability of the authorities for crimes against their own people is real democracy."However, a long-term peace did not work out, and as a result, events quickly escalated into the Second Chechen War. Nevertheless, even then Yabloko advocated the possibility of negotiations. In October 2002, during the seizure of hostages by Chechen terrorists in the theater center on Dubrovka in Moscow, one of the demands of the bandits was the participation of Grigory Yavlinsky in the negotiations. After the tragedy, Grigory Yavlinsky made a statement that expressed the official point of view of the Yabloko party:"We firmly believe that there can be no justification for terrorism – neither political, nor religious, nor by good causes, not even by so-called "symmetrical and retaliatory" measures, or any other. There is no justification for killing or threatening, blackmailing by killing innocent, defenseless people. In this sense, the cause of terrorism is not poverty or suffering, and not even revenge (which is directed at the guilty), but boundless meanness ... Undoubtedly, those who embark on the path of terror must be brought to justice or, if this is not possible, eliminated. However, what happened with a new acuteness raises the question of resolving the armed conflict in Chechnya, of ending the cleansings, torture, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, bullying, unlimited physical violence – in essence, the cessation of the most brutal war to exterminate an entire people. All efforts to find political ways to end the war are required to be repeatedly intensified. All lessons must be learned from this tragedy."

The death penalty

Yabloko advocates the complete abolition of the death penalty in Russia. After on 10 February 2013, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, in an interview with the program Saturday Vesti of the TV channel Russia-1 said that he had nothing against the return of the death penalty in Russia, this caused severe criticism from the party, on the website of which there was a proposal to send the minister to resign.

LGBT rights

The Yabloko party has repeatedly advocated for the rights of the LGBT community. On 5 April 2012, activists of the Amur branch of the party organized a rally for the rights of LGBT people agreed with the authorities. In 2016, the St. Petersburg branch of the party included items on support for LGBT people in the program, and in 2017, in the program of the electoral association "Yabloko Party in Moscow" during the elections of deputies of representative bodies of local self-government in the city of Moscow, it was recorded that that party candidates oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation. Also in 2016, the pre-election plan for the legislative work of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma included a clause on the need to repeal the law on liability for "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations". The need to repeal this law was also discussed on the party's pre-election website. And the federal program of the party declared the need to develop "such forms of interpersonal support as a civil partnership that allows people who are not related to each other to provide each other with mutual support and assistance, providing citizens who enter into such a partnership with the opportunity to visit each other in a hospital, joint ownership property, inheritance, etc." The youth and gender factions of the Yabloko party have repeatedly made statements and held actions in support of the rights of the LGBT community.

Some well-known Yabloko supporters, including Galina Mikhaleva, Maxim Reznik and Aleksey Melnikov, support LGBT people. "Protection against discrimination of the LGBT community" was identified in 2011 as one of the new areas of work for the gender faction. Members of the Moscow Yabloko took part in the events of the Week Against Homophobia in 2011, and the Moscow Youth Yabloko issued a special statement in support of it. Also, Youth Yabloko planned to participate in the Equality March in 2011. Party leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory Yavlinsky have repeatedly condemned homophobia. Nikolai Kavkazsky, a member of the Youth Yabloko, noted that "the gay parade is not a carnival, but a human rights event <...> which should be held more often than once a year". However, LGBT support is not included in the party program.

Deputy of the State Duma of the III convocation Alexander Fedulov, head of the Kursk party organization of Yabloko, in the summer of 2011 appealed to the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev with an appeal to "protect the moral and spiritual health of the absolute majority of Russians from the aggressive, impudent" pink-and-blue "minority", after which he was criticized by Sergei Mitrokhin, who noted that "In a civilized state, the rights of citizens must be respected regardless of their nationality, social class and sexual orientation."